Pewter

First published in Hummingbird 31:2, December 2021, page 23. Originally written in February 2019.

That pewter bowl from Scotland,

where has it gotten to now

after dad’s death and mum’s downsizing?

One of us siblings must have it,

a reminder of our summer

in the highlands with the highland cattle,

the barren hills, Ben Nevis,

the castle at Loch Ness.

The pewter often looked black,

in need of polishing—

that pewter bowl, that pewter bowl

that might have come from Norway after all.